Lack of access to clean water is a leading cause of death and disease in a lot of countries, killing many people annually and causing a wide variety of illnesses. Water treatment is necessary to alleviate the health conditions of people and to protect from the ill effects acquired from the consumption of unsafe or contaminated water. In many countries water is a scarce and expensive resource. Methods for waste water treatment have a wide interest associated with the energy consumed by such water treatment. Although waste water can be recycled and re-used it is generally considered of importance to avoid unnecessary spillage of water. Such spillage may occur as a result of leakage caused by e.g. poor maintenance of faucets, faulty pipe connections or worn-out gaskets in various components of water systems or by inattentive closure of faucets, water taps and the like.
Water appliances having a water flow control unit are generally applied for water treatment and may serve various conditioning purposes such as cooling, heating or cleaning of water. They may also serve as a means for dosage of an amount of water tapped from a reservoir or public water system. Water appliances can be incorporated into a public water system or can be used in a domestic environment as under-the-counter appliances which filter water prior to reaching the faucet or as a terminal end device which may be faucet mounted. Water appliances can treat water by means of mechanical filtration to prevent passage of particulates or by chemical treatment of water.